1. Field
The present invention relates generally to monitoring systems and, more specifically, to systems and methods for monitoring a wearable child-monitor system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many environments, individuals with underdeveloped and/or impaired ability to determine safety and health hazards need to be monitored. Individuals requiring monitoring may include children, special needs individuals, dementia patients, persons prone to wander, persons with mental disabilities, etc. For a caregiver or supervisor to appropriately monitor the safety of such an individual, it is often desirable for the individual to remain within a specified physical proximity of a caregiver or other supervisor. However, such individuals may be ambulatory or have other mechanisms for movement, such as, for example, a wheel chair, giving them the ability to move outside of the specified physical proximity and making them more difficult to monitor.
Monitoring difficulties may increase when a single caregiver or small number of caregivers is tasked with monitoring a larger group of individuals. Monitoring difficulties may also increase depending on the location and/or environment where monitoring is to occur. For example, it may be more difficult to monitor such individuals in a crowd or in locations with limited line of sight.
Existing monitoring techniques are lacking. Many such systems consume excessive amounts of batter power, often requiring heavier batteries than can be borne by weaker individuals, like small children. Many such systems suffer from excessive false positive rates, which can render the system unusable. Finally, some existing techniques emit wireless signals that convey more information to third parties than is desirable for privacy reasons.